Many of you will be visiting the post office this week, and perhaps you can spare 98 cents for that overseas airmail stamp. And if you have the stamps in hand, you might just be inspired to write a quick note or send a card to someone in pretty desperate circumstances.

A cynic (like me) might say that these letters are pointless, that they never work, and so on. But then I think about about the good that people are capable of, and I momentarily rise above my own doubts and put that pen to paper.